Amazon Prime Video launches in South Africa

And it seems the on-demand competition for the South African audience is heating up as Amazon announced today that they are switching on their ‘Prime Video’ service to over 200 countries, including South Africa. Amazon Prime Video joins the likes of local Showmax and Netflix in providing an on-demand video service to the country.

However, to sweeten the deal and make their service a little more appetizing than their competition, Amazon is launching the service for around $2.99 (around R40) per month for the first 6 months, where it will then increase to $5.99 a month – which is still cheaper than Netflix’s cheapest subscriptions, which go for around $7.99. It’s certainly an appealing deal and one that is likely to get a lot of South Africans interested, not least of which is the interest in The Grand Tour, featuring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond which will probably be hugely popular given our love of fast cars, great humour and ludicrous antics in destroying said expensive and fast cars.

However, while that might already seem worth R40 a month to some of you, there is still a host of other Amazon exclusive content like Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle and The Man in the High Castle and the upcoming Z: The Beginning of Everything,  as well as other critically acclaimed series released on the service. Their line-up of exclusive shows is certainly not as good as its competition at the moment, but at the better price point, it may gain some edge, especially with those who have yet to sign up on the other services.

And the service will launch with its download feature, which Netflix recently introduced, ready to go and will also allow users the opportunity of choosing their streaming quality based on good, better and best. Not sure what resolutions those are referring to. The announcement doesn’t indicate what line speeds you will require to run this side, but I can’t imagine it would be any different from Showmax and Netflix with a 4MB line recommended for best performance.

Tim Leslie, Vice President International of Prime Video had the following to say:

We are excited to announce that starting today, fans around the world have access to Prime Video. The Grand Tour and other critically acclaimed Amazon Original Series like Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and The Man in the High Castle, along with hundreds of popular Hollywood movies and TV shows, are now available at the introductory price of only 2.99 a month. And what’s really exciting is that we are just getting started

Prime Video can be watched through its app on Android and iOS, Fire Tablets, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, or online at PrimeVideo.com, giving you plenty of ways of consuming their content.

We hope to get a review for everyone in the New Year on how Amazon Prime Video compares with its competition. Its an exciting time in the on-demand service business and 2017 could be a bumper year for TV shows coming our way.

Last Updated: December 14, 2016